Functions needed for plugins

What functions aren't in the API that are needed to write plugins? This topic is for people who are trying to write plugins but (think they) need some functionality. (That is, those of us with check-in privileges can just add stuff to TWiki::Func.)

-- Contributors: MeredithLesly

Discussion

To programmatically set the html page name/title based on the heading from within a plugin, I need a function to set a preferences variable (in this case PAGETITLE) which is than accessible e.g. from a template. Please see for reference TopicDisplayName discussion from 31 Mar 2006.

-- TobiasRoeser - 25 Apr 2006

FindElsewherePlugin bypasses current API to use takeOutBlocks / putBackBlocks.

-- SteffenPoulsen - 25 Apr 2006

Yes; I did that to simplify the plugin and eliminate duplication in handling noautolink blocks.

You are right, they ought to be in the API.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 26 Apr 2006

MoreFuncContrib is in svn, btw. I created it eons ago (or so it seems) as a place to put functions that ought to go into the next version of TWiki::Func.

-- MeredithLesly - 01 Jun 2006

I would like a function that gets a list of registered users in an array. In my plugin at the moment, I am getting the list of users by doing the following (stolen from tools/upgrade_emails.pl):

sub getListOfUsers {

        my @users = ();
        my $mainWeb = TWiki::Func::getMainWebname();

        my (undef, $text) = TWiki::Func::readTopic(
                $mainWeb, $TWiki::cfg{UsersTopicName} );

        foreach my $line ( split( /\r?\n/, $text )) {
                if( $line =~ m/^\s*\* ($TWiki::regex{webNameRegex}\.)?(\w+)\s*(?:-\s*(\S+)\s*)?-\s*\d+ \w+ \d+\s*$/o ) {
                        my $web = $1 || $mainWeb;
                        my $wikiName = $2;
                        if(TWiki::Func::topicExists($web, $wikiName) && $wikiName !~ m/TWiki.*|UnknownUser/){
                                push(@users, $wikiName);
                        }
                }
        }

        return (\@users);
}

-- AndrewRJones - 01 Mar 2007

This topic is a bit stale, and overlapping with MoreApiFunctions. Andrew, for tracking purposes it is better to create a feature request topic for every API enhancement. See also related ProvideMechanismToSendEmailsToRegisteredUsers.

-- PeterThoeny - 02 Mar 2007

As it happens, it is already going to be available in 4.2 by implementing MergeFuncUsersContribWithFunc.

-- AndrewRJones - 02 Mar 2007